Place he can call his home

Paul Sullivan, Tribune reporterCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Perhaps not since Andre Dawson arrived at camp with a blank contract in 1987 has a free agent recruited the Cubs the way Milton Bradley did this winter.

"It's the Cubs," Bradley said Sunday after reporting two days early. "Who wouldn't want to play for the Cubs? Wrigley Field, already a great team in place ... I'll come in and just try to add something to that mix.

"They haven't won in 100 years, so you come in and have that pressure -- that media word, 'pressure.' But it's not really like that. Having the opportunity to come in here and win it after all this time, that excites me."

After years of roaming, the veteran outfielder who turns 31 in April is the centerpiece of a revamped lineup on a contending team. He's hoping to erase his well-known image of "Meltdown Bradley" -- an angry young man always on the verge of snapping.

Bradley's mistakes have been well chronicled, and he said he doesn't want to read about them over and over again.

"I can talk all day, until your tape recorder runs out," he said. "But [reporters] harp on all the negativity and things I've done wrong. ... I know what I've done wrong. I'm trying to do something right. So if we could just get away from all the negativity, going back four or five years and the stuff that I did, and just focus what I'm doing now.

"I think I'm a positive influence, and I think I'm a good guy to be around. I learned from other people, and they can learn from me. In the past I didn't try to be friendly. I was just in there trying to play baseball. But I kind of found that rubs people the wrong way. They get the wrong impression. If you don't talk a lot, they're just going to assume things.

"The only way they're going to know you is if you talk. I think when I got to Oakland [in 2006], I changed my approach and have had success and good times since."

Bradley signed a three-year, $30 million contract in January after telling the Cubs in November he would wait as long as they wanted to get him wrapped up. After playing for six teams in the previous eight seasons, Bradley said he was tired of being a "rent-a-player" and felt like Wrigley Field was the perfect landing spot.

"As much as we courted him, I've never seen a player court us like he did," Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney told fans at the Cubs Convention. "He was scouting us in the third game of the division series , sitting in Los Angeles trying to figure out where he would play in our lineup, and he left himself, basically, with no escape clause.

"He was negotiating with us and really didn't have a safety net. This is a guy who chose Chicago and the pressure and the limelight. I don't think he expects to fail. He wants to be a Cub."

Bradley got his first taste of being a Cub at the convention, which he referred to Sunday as a "nice-fest."

"It helps the transition for me when you're dealing with people who are nice and appreciative and always in your corner," he said. "It hasn't always been that way for me."

The only question Bradley was not interested in answering Sunday was about the strength of his right knee, which he tore up at the end of the 2007 season while being restrained during a heated argument with umpire Mike Winters. He played only 43 games in the outfield last year with Texas and was the DH in 83 other games.

"We're hopeful he plays 130 to 135 games," general manager Jim Hendry said. "He's going to be mad at me saying that, because he thinks he can play 155, and I wouldn't count him out."

But Bradley said Sunday he hopes to play 181 games, which presumably would consist of a 162-game season and 19 postseason games to a championship. If that's the case, he'll be a bargain at any price.

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psullivan@tribune.com

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The Cubs showed up for spring training looking like worldbeaters. Read the full column at chicagotribune.com/cubs